Edit - of sorts!

While I loved the way the Copper/Red Enamel/Rhodochrisite necklace came out, I was not entirely happy with the balance of the piece - especially where the size of the heart was concerned.  The other day, while making a "strong copper 'S' hook, inspiration struck.  I twisted and smoothed and, VOILA, a heart.  I soldered it together, wrapped an enameled head pin around the center and added it to the necklace.  All in all a very successful re-work!

New Pieces

Maybe the title should be 'Wordless Wednesday' - although by saying that I have definitely made it NOT a wordless day...........some of my new pieces for the show:

Full Speed Ahead

I'm trying to get ready for a show that is set to take place at the beginning of next month.......I have been working furiously making bracelets, necklaces, enameling pennies, making headpins........whew..........

Here's a little of what I've been up to:

Leather and Copper

I've been having a lot of fun in the studio using my torch and some copper wire.  I made some double balled headpins (quenched in water in between torching to retain the nice hot red patina on the end) and then tried to figure out what to do with them.  I had a length of braided leather that I decided to wrap them around - and here is the result - a tribal looking bracelet that can be for a man or a woman.

While I love the red patina on the end, I wanted some that were plain copper:

and then some with purple enamel on the ends:

And a couple more pennies............white with a layer of purple on the top:

..........gray with a purple layer:

...........and midnight blue with a spattering of red:

Autumn Colors (and some blues)

I was in the studio the other day with my nephew - we were fitting a necklace I had made for him - and he expressed an interest in trying his hand at torch firing some enamel on pennies.  After a short instruction period, he picked out a color (opaque orange - my personal nemesis for some reason), cleaned the pennies and proceeded to torch fire.  It was a resounding success.

His very first penny - very first attempt at torch firing enamel, and he's a natural!!!

The color got me to thinking about autumn and how quickly it's sneaking up on us - so I wanted to do some pennies that would look good in a "fall" jewelry piece. I have been wanting to layer colors in a staggered way - not the way I have been but in such a way that the layered colors will show on their own - and this is what I came up with:

And then because I loved how the pennies were turning out, I had to try a couple different colors..........